All articles by Laverne Hadaway
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Analysis
How to assess the employee experience of private medical insurance claims
If you read nothing else, read this…Lower PMI premiums do not necessarily mean a less satisfactory employee experience.Consultants and advisers are good sources of information about the quality of a PMI provider’s service.Employers could survey scheme members to assess their opinions on the benefit.With most PMI schemes subject to annual ...
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Case Studies
Case study: Universal in tune with changes
Universal Music Group is looking to administer pensions auto-enrolment for employees using its existing flexible benefits scheme. Staff sign up for the company’s flexible benefits, including its pension, via a reward website developed in conjunction with Bluefin.The music content company also plans to use the online reward system to manage ...
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Analysis
Flexible benefits: A flexible approach to auto-enrolment
If you read nothing else, read this … Flexible benefits schemes can automate the transactions required for auto-enrolment, helping employers with large workforces to comply with the changes. The framework and structure of flex schemes can help employers communicate the pension changes to staff. Flex schemes can ease compliance with ...
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Analysis
Tailoring employee share scheme particpation to suit workforce demographics
Share schemes have had a rough time, and employers must tailor participation to suit their own workforce, says Laverne HadawayIf you read nothing else, read this...Stock market falls have shown just how risky share schemes can be for staff, so they must beware of putting too much of their savings ...
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Article
Structuring flexible benefits schemes
Deciding which perks to include in a flexible benefits scheme can be a tricky task for employers, says Laverne HadawayThere is no secret formula for deciding the optimum number of benefits in a flex scheme. Instead, it will largely depend on factors such as an organisation’s culture and workforce demographics, ...
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Analysis
Special report: Tax efficiency on employee benefits
Executive summary: Using tax and National Insurance (NI) breaks available on the provision of benefits can save employers money and help to improve cash flow. It is especially pertinent as NI is due to rise by 0.5% for both employees and employers in April 2011. The first most obvious way ...
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Analysis
Good sales incentive management boosts profits
Executive Summary Incentivisation compensation management (ICM) software allows employers to administer variable pay in order maximise profit by tracking the right type of selling and customer service. Most employers still use 'homegrown' systems based on Excel spreadsheets but these often cannot handle complexity such as multi-country systems and so are ...
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Analysis
How far should employers go in providing financial education?
The need for financial education in the workplace has been highlighted by the credit crunch, but how far should employers go, asks Laverne HadawayEven before the credit crunch began to take its toll, the concept of providing financial education for staff was rising in prominence. The publication of the Thoresen ...
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Analysis
How to calculate the whole life cost of cars
Motivated by factors such as tax changes and the potential savings on offer, employers are increasingly moving towards calculating the whole life cost of vehicles within their fleet, says Laverne HadawayAs the economic downturn continues, knowing precisely how much items cost is more important than ever, both for employers and ...
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Analysis
Special report: total reward
EXECUTIVE SUMMARYTotal reward plays an important part in employee engagement, which in turn can make a big difference to productivity. It is about all the ways in which people are rewarded when they come to work: pay, benefits and the other non-financial rewards put together to make a coherent ...
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Analysis
Benefits for staff on short-term placements overseas
A stint working abroad for a multi-national employer is usually regarded as a welcome opportunity by employees. Shorter-term placements overseas can be useful where specific expertise or resources need to be deployed quickly and for a defined period of time, for example, if a project needs to be set up ...
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Article
Market trends: Flexible Benefits for SMEs
Developments in the flex market mean it is now often easier for smaller employers to offer a plan, says Laverne HadawayFlexible benefits plans were once considered the preserve of large organisations typically due to the cost and amount of work thought to be involved in launching and running a scheme. ...
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Analysis
Plan to push defined benefit pensions?
Final salary schemes have come to represent a gold standard in pensions terms, so Laverne Hadaway asks why more organisations do not promote their plans in job adverts and while recruiting staffAs more final salary pension plans close to new members, the remaining open schemes look increasingly as rare and ...
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Analysis
Taking flexible benefits internationally
Offering a flexible benefits scheme internationally can help to harmonise employees’ perks, but there are a whole host of complexities that must first be addressed, says Laverne HadawayAs opportunities open up within multi-national organisations, employers may decide to transfer staff between locations. When doing so, however, they will need to ...
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Analysis
Executive share plans require tough performance conditions
Executive share plans typically require staff to meet top performance criteria, says Laverne HadawayThe shape of the schemes on offer today stems directly from the shareholder protests of the early 1990s against chief executives receiving lucrative share options, apparently for doing very little. Share schemes for executives are now typically ...
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Analysis
Make best use of potential flexible benefits data
As organisations look to limit administrative headaches with flex technology, the data that is thrown up can be a vital source of knowledge, shows Laverne HadawayOver the past few years, developments in technology have helped to overcome some of employers’ concerns about introducing flexible benefits, such as cost and ease ...
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Case Studies
Cambridgeshire County Council has a well-developed total reward strategy
Cambridgeshire County Council has been developing its total reward strategy since 2000. Stephen Moir, director of people and policy at the council, says that the biggest reason behind deploying the concept was to use reward to improve recruitment and retention. "There was no sense of quantification. Employees didn't realise how ...
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Analysis
Employee engagement: Total reward helps staff value benefits
A total reward strategy can help staff to appreciate the full value of their benefits, but should also include intangibles such as opportunities for learning, says Laverne HadawayFew people would dispute that a total reward strategy, designed to show employees the complete value of their package, can promote engagement. However, ...
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Analysis
Pre-retirement financial education for employees
The thought of retirement is a scary prospect for most employees but financial education that occurs over five years before the event can be of enormous benefit says Laverne HadawayArticle in fullPre-retirement education is a benefit that is currently offered by relatively few employers, but that may well change.Jonathan Watts-Lay, ...
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Analysis
Total reward statements can improve staff satisfaction
A by-product of raising awareness can be that total reward statements will bolster staff satisfaction, says Laverne HadawayTotal reward statements are increasingly being used by organisations as a way of getting employees to appreciate the full value of their benefits package. The statements, which can either be paper-based or viewed ...